Lies and Bewilderment
by MWMaenad
Summary: Lorelai leaves for a few months to further her career, while Rory's schemes lead to mass confusion for everybody. Narco, Lit or Trory, who can tell?
1. Chapter 1

This is just a fun story I was writing that I want to dedicate to my boyfriend. He is a dirty pervert who got with me when I was barely legal (really he's only 6 years older than me) and I don't know how I would have gotten through the last 5 years without him. So, for our 5 year anniversary I decided to dedicate this silly story to him.

The story takes place somewhere between Seasons 2 and 3. Oh and for this story Tristan never left for military school. Let me know what you think!

* * *

Rory hated lying to her mom. She hated lying to her grandparents. But sometimes it really was necessary. She'd come to that conclusion after the latest fight between her mom and her grandparents. About her, and who she dated. Her grandparents had always hated Dean and didn't even know about Jess, who they would more than likely hate more. Her mom obviously hated Jess and loved Dean and she was determined to please her. But she had to please herself as well... the dilemma seemed overwhelming.

Rory had always been good at planning, good at organizing, good at doing what had to be done when it had to be done. Well this was just a new problem that needed a solution. Rory distanced herself from the problem, pulled out a notebook and started writing out possible solutions.

She started with the problem. She liked Jess. It had taken a monumental internal effort to finally admit that to herself. Well that wouldn't normally be a problem. She was pretty sure that Jess liked her too, or had liked her. But now he was with Shane, and they seemed to like each other a whole lot. Either way though, her bigger problem was that she was dating Dean. That wasn't even the biggest problem. The biggest problem was everyone else in her life. She couldn't tell her mom about it because her mom loved Dean. And hated Jess. And she could talk to her grandparents even less because they would be thrilled she didn't want to be with Dean, and then very disappointed that she liked someone so... well unsuitable. And just to complicate things further, Stars Hollow also hated Jess, and loved Dean. Rory wrote a colum for people who liked Jess (her) and who liked Dean (the town, her mom) and people who disliked Dean (her grandparents, Jess) and people who disliked Jess (pretty much everyone.

Rory had never given too much weight to what people thought of her. She hated the thought of anyone actually disliking her, and she was always nice and polite to people. But she wouldn't have cared if everyone hated her boyfriend, except... except that her mom would be gone for the entire fall semester and Rory would be staying with her grandparents. Rory loved her grandparents. She'd understood how her mom felt about them, could even see where it came from, but still there was a bond between them that her mom had never had with her parents. Still, with all these changes Rory didn't want to worry or upset anybody. Her mom might reconsider going if she knew that Rory's life was on the brink of a major change. Hell her mom reconsidered every other minute. The thought of not seeing each other for the entire summer was hard to deal with. Lorelai had been offered a chance to open an inn in Colorado, to really get to learn everything that was involved, to help set up everything. It was perfect preparation for opening her own inn, a dream she had had for a long time. So Rory was excited for her mom when the subject had first come up. But that still didn't help with her issues. There was no way she could date Jess while living with her grandparents, was there? And would her mom even go if she knew she was dating Jess? Lorelai trusted Dean. It had taken a while but they were even friends. Jess was a completely different story.

So this was the story behind the plan that she was quickly going to come up with.

The plan ended up being the most convoluted thing that Rory had ever conceived of. It was so confusing she was unsure of her ability to even organize it, much less pull it off. She arranged all the pieces of the puzzle on the paper and then organized them into concise, easy steps. Well it was easy on paper but thinking about actually going through with the plan made Rory suddenly drop back into reality. She wasn't the objective organizer now, she was Rory, the girl who had to break up with her boyfriend and hopefully get Jess... and then lie to everyone about it. Either way, she has to find a way to be in Stars Hollow at least some of the time or she would never even see Jess. Not to mention the girlfriend-ectomy she would have to pull to get Shane out of the picture.

Rory heard the front door open so she slammed shut her notebooks and tossed them under the bed, grabbing the nearest book to read.

She didn't even have a chance to see what it was before Lorelai burst into the room waving a cd.

"I got the new Tool cd!" she exclaimed proudly, ejecting Rory's cd, tossing it onto the bed and putting the new one in. Then she stopped short. "Mastering a new skill?" She asked, looking at Rory's book. Rory looked down to realize that her book was upside down.

"Oh... well sometimes math problems make more sense if you work them backwards." Rory explained. Lorelai gave her a strange look but then turned on the cd, blasting music into the room and banishing any possibility of studying anyway.

Once the cd was over and their ears stopped ringing Lorelai sat next to Rory on the bed.

"So I know we have talked about this before, but tell me how you feel about living with your grandparents. If you hate the idea or don't want to do it tell me." she said. Rory could tell that she was half wanting an excuse to stay. But no matter what, Rory was determined not to give her one. After all her mom had sacrificed for them, for Rory, there was no way that Rory was going to hold her back on.

"You forget, they like me." she said with a joking smile.

"You really aren't worried?" Lorelai asked.

"Not really. How bad could they be?" Rory asked. "Besides, it might be kinda fun. I'll get to know them better."

Lorelai shook her head. "You are amazing kid, you know that? Well then lets do a drill."

Rory groaned a little. "Not another one." she whined.

"You messed up last time. Okay, here goes." Lorelai stopped and adjusted her posture. She used her 'Emily' voice when she started speaking again. "Oh Rory you know I had the most wonderful idea."

Rory, knowing the drill, immediately yelled "NO!!" Lorelai smiled approvingly, then continued.

"You know what might be nice.." Rory cut her off to yell 'no' again, feeling distinctly silly.

"There was this boy I just know you would love." Lorelai went on.

Rory repeated her answer.

Lorelai started just spitting out random, and in her opinion menacing, words.

"Cotillion"

"No!"

"Coming out party"

"No!"

"DAR"

"No! NONO!"

"Vegetables"

"NO!"

"Poodles"

"NO!"

They both ended up laughing.

"You pass." said Lorelai. "I think you might be safe over there with my parents."

"I think so too. Don't worry mom, I'll be fine. And if I end up in a closet eating my pillow you can always fly home." Rory assured her mom.

Lorelai gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head. "Okay, I guess you probably will be fine."

"I will be mom." Rory told her.

Lorelai left the room and Rory pulled out her plan, going over it one more time. Things weren't all in place yet, and it wouldn't be easy, but she should be able to pull it off.

She picked up the phone and dialed Dean's number.

"Hello?" His voice came over the phone.

"Dean, it's Rory."

His voice sounded happier on the phone. Rory felt like a horrible person.

"After my mom leaves tomorrow do you want to come over? Things will be different once I move in with my grandparents and I thought we should talk about it." Rory told him.

"Sure. I'll come over after school." He told her.

"Okay, see you then." Rory hung up the phone. So she hadn't exactly lied. Things would be changing when she moved in with her grandparents, just not in the way he expected. But hopefully he didn't know that she was going to break up with him. If he came over early it would ruin everything with her mom.

Then she made another call. "Kim's Aniques." the voice on the other line answered.

"Hi Mrs. Kim. It's Rory." Rory said, trying not to sound intimidated.

"I'll get Lane." Mrs. Kim said.

"Actually, I was wondering if I could talk to you about something." Rory said.

"I'm listening." Mrs. Kim replied tersely.

"Well, Lane mentioned that you were going to be attending a workshop this fall. You know where you work for a printer printing your very own bible."

"Yes, I will be doing that." Mrs. Kim responded.

"Lane mentioned that you were looking for extra help and I was wondering if I could maybe help out after school a couple days a week." Rory asked hesitantly. She realized she had her fingers crossed which was a silly superstition, but if it helped...

Mrs. Kim seemed to consider. "Alright, you can work here Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 3:30 until 6. I will get home around six. Since we are printing this by hand the bible will take a while to finish. I pay you $5.50 an hour. How does that sound?"

Rory smiled. "That sounds perfect. I'll be there. Thank you so much."

"Oh Rory, I heard that your mother will be in Colorado. You aren't going to be staying by yourself are you?"

"No, I'm going to live with my grandparents in Hartford."

"Good. A young girl should not be left alone like that."

"Right. Well I'll see you on Thursday." Rory was in a hurry to get off the phone and tell her mom about the job. And then spend those last few hours together.

"See you then. And Rory, don't wear anything from your mothers closet."

"I won't." promised Rory.

She put down the phone and ran into the living room with a smile on her face. "Hey mom, I didn't ask you about this first because I didn't know if it would work or not but I wanted to find a way to spend time in Stars Hollow and with Lane and maybe earn a little extra money so I'll be working at Mrs. Kim's Antique store after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Not long, just until 6 but I thought it would be fun."

Lorelai looked at her shocked. "Will Mrs. Kim be there?" she asked.

"No, she will be printing her own bible." Rory explained. Lorelai looked relieved. "That does sound like fun. Do you have the time?"

"Yeah the newspaper doesn't meet on those days and I'll still have time to finish all my homework. Plus Lane and I can do homework together when there are no customers."

Lorelai looked slyly at her. "And maybe her science partner will be there?" she asked, teasing Rory.

Rory suddenly realized that Dean was still Lane's lab partner. Why hadn't she thought this through?

"Oh, yeah he might be. Sometimes." She answered. If she couldn't convince Dean of her plan this could get very weird.

Lorelai smiled at her. "You two are so cute it makes me sick." she said. "Now lets eat massive amounts of food and watch three and a half crappy movies."

"Three and a half?" Rory asked.

"Thats all we have time for before you have to get to bed for school and I have to get to bed to catch the plane." Lorelai said. She looked sad at the prospect of leaving.

Rory felt sad too, but she forced herself to be cheerful. "But crappy movies are usually also short, so wouldn't we have time for all of them?"

"Nope I factored that in. Now do you want to watch the first or last half?" Lorelai asked.

"You pick. I'll call Chinese, you call pizza and start thinking about what you want to watch."

"Fine." Lorelai called and started dialing on her cell phone while Rory picked up the house telephone. As soon as she had ordered and set down the phone and met Lorelai in the hall.

"Should be here in twenty minutes." they both said at the same time. Just as they were deciding what movie to throw in the bell rang.

Rory jumped up and ran to answer it. Jess stood there sullenly, with a bag of food.

"Jess!" Rory said, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

He shoved the bag at her. "Luke knew that your mom was leaving tomorrow so he figured you were having a big night together. He sent over food."

Rory tried to get a read on him. She was so close to breaking up with Dean and being able to date Jess... if he wanted to date her that is. "Tell him thanks from us."

Lorelai came up behind her and Rory knew that there was no chance that Jess would say anything else.

"Oh food!" squealed Lorelai. She noticed Jess. "Are you waiting for a tip?" she asked, more rudely than she had to.

"Whatever." Jess said, turning around and disappearing into the night.

"That was mean." Rory said, turning to her mom.

"I'm just worried about him. And I won't be here to watch you." Lorelai said tightly.

Rory just nodded, grabbed the food back from her mom and headed into the living room. "At least now we have something to start out with." she said.

"I'm going to miss Luke's food." Lorelai answered, tearing into the bag. If Rory didn't want to talk about Jess she wasn't about to push her. Better that she stay away from him altogether.

They spent the next 6 hours watching movies, eating food and continuing a running commentary on how bad the movies were. By the time they crawled into bed they both passed out almost instantly.


	2. Chapter 2

Rory woke up groggily in the morning to the blaring alarm, which, fortunately, she hadn't been too tired to remember to set. She whacked around on her nightstand until her hand connected with the alarm clock, thankful to have silenced the horrible contraption. Then she rolled over, moaning a little. The late hours and loads of food did not agree with getting up for school. She stared in the mirror noting her wild hair, puffy eyes and bloated looks. 'At least Dean won't be sorry to see me go.' she thought, trying to make light of her scary appearance. Then she dragged herself out of bed and hobbled into the shower.

She met Lorelai in the kitchen, brewing her second pot of coffee. Rory held out her cup while holding her head. Her mom nodded, silently commiserating. "I can't believe I won't see you for almost four months." Lorelai said, looking at her daughter. "And I'm leaving you at the mercy of my parents evil schemes."

Rory smiled a little although she didn't feel too cheerful. "I'll miss you mom. Last night was pretty fun though, it was a good way to say goodbye. Not this morning, looking terrible and fighting over the coffee."

"You're right." Agreed Lorelai. "We'll pretend that this never happened. We said goodbye last night."

"Okay then I should get to school." Rory said sadly.

Her mom gave her a big hug and kissed her on the forehead. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too. Be safe, have fun, and learn a lot. I feel like you are leaving for college." Joked Rory.

"I'll call you as soon as I get in." Lorelai assured her.

"I'll probably be out of school by then." Rory said. And then with a final hug Rory left for school and Lorelai started getting the last of her things together.

Rory went through the day with her stomach in a tight knot. It was the brink of a whole different phase of her life. Living somewhere else, with her grandparents was itself a huge change. But then no Dean too? She did care about Dean, and didn't want to hurt him. And how the hell was she going to talk to Jess? She was relieved that she would be spending the next couple days in Stars Hollow, by herself, until Friday Night Dinner when she would move in with her grandparents. Lorelai had assured her parents over and over that Rory would be just fine for a few days on her own and that there was nothing to worry about. Rory hoped that was true.

When she finally got out of school Rory steeled herself to talk to Dean and also to go home to an empty house without her mom. She didn't know where she had gotten the nerve to finally break up with Dean. She had let it go on way too long when she wasn't nearly as committed to the relationship as he was. And she had stayed with Dean partly because Jess had been such an ass lately. She knew he was trying to mess with her when she saw him with Shane, making out all over the place.

She distracted herself from that disgusting imagery by trying to come up with the 'Dean breakup speech.' Finally she drove into the driveway and stopped the car. Dean was already there, waiting on the porch for her. He smiled and waved as she got over the car, then leaned to give her a kiss as she approached him. Rory cringed inwardly. So much for her hideous looks throwing him off. She caught her reflection in the window. Yep, he was definitely crazy. Rory looked exhausted, with no makeup and unstyled hair.

"Hi Dean." She said in a somewhat strangled voice.

"So you still have a couple days in Stars Hollow, right?" He asked.

"Uh huh. I'm here until Friday." Rory confirmed. She lead him inside. "Dean I have to talk to you about something."

Dean looked at her, concerned by the seriousness of her tone. "What is it?"

Rory took a deep breath. She had decided to tell him the truth. The whole truth. No running away, no hiding. She was going to get it all out. "Dean I don't think we can be together anymore." She paused as she saw a stunned look cross his face. "I.. like someone else." she said in an ashamed rush.

"Jess." he said.

She nodded slightly.

He took a deep breath. "For how long?" He asked.

"I don't know, exactly. I've liked him for a while, I just wanted to get over it, make things work with you. But I can't do it, especially when I'm not even going to be here that much. It's not fair to you."

"Oh, well thanks for being so magnanimous!" He spat out. Rory could tell that he was hurt. She looked down, not sure what to say.

"So you're just breaking up with me? Thats it?" he asked.

"Well.." Rory knew that this was a terrible time to bring this up, but she needed to ask him this. "Would you maybe be able to pretend that we are still together? Just for a while?" she asked.

"What?!?" Dean asked, looking amazed and confused.

"I don't want my mom to find out that we broke up. She would feel like she would have to come home and I don't want her to lose this opportunity."

"So you are breaking up with me and you want me to pretend to still be with you while you are dating Jess? Do you have any idea how messed up that is?" Dean asked.

"I'll pay you." she offered. "I'll be working for Mrs. Kim a couple days a week and I'll give you 2/3 of whatever I make."

He looked at her with disbelief, but then slowly nodded. "Fine. I guess I could use the money. And if you don't want to be with me we can at least be friends. You didn't cheat on me and you came to me first, so I guess we can try it."

Rory couldn't believe how easy that had been. She wanted to give him a hug but wasn't sure that was appropriate given the situation. So she just gave him a grateful smile and extended her hand. "Friends?" she asked.

He took her hand and shook it. "Friends." He said. "But don't expect me to like Jess, or get along with him. In fact I hate him."

She nodded. "You might not even ever see us together, since we are trying to fool the town into thinking I'm still with you. And I don't even know if he likes me back. He is dating Shane."

"Oh he likes you." Dean said, somewhat bitterly but Rory felt a thrill of pleasure at his certainty.

Dean stayed a while, longer than Rory would have liked. She felt impatient to start her new life apart from Dean now that it was over. But she recognized that he was hurt and upset and she did her best to make him feel better. In the back of her mind though she couldn't believe that he had let her go that easily. When he did finally leave Rory debated trying to find Jess but one look in the mirror convinced her to wait until tomorrow.

Rory woke up earlier than her alarm clock in the morning. She looked at the numbers on her clock and then to the sun streaming through her window with some chagrin but then rolled out of bed, listening to the eerie quiet in the house. The house was never quiet when Lorelai was around, not even when she was sleeping. Now the house felt empty and even somewhat creepy. Rory hated the thought of abandoning it for so long. She first looked in the mirror and was happy to note that she looked, if not fantastic, at least normal today. She thought back to the events of last night, how things had gone with Dean and wondered if that was really it, if they were really broken up now after almost two years together. She looked at the bracelet he had made for her, now sitting on the top of her dresser. She recalled taking it off last night and putting it on the dresser, not exactly sure what to do. Taking it off had such finality to it, it had been hard to put down.

Rory broke this reverie by hopping into the shower. She didn't think of the bracelet again until she got dressed, and remembered that she and Dean were going to pretend that they were still dating. Which meant that she would have to wear it. There would be immediate suspicion if she didn't put it on. So, somewhat reluctantly, Rory tied the bracelet once again on her wrist.

One more glance in the mirror assured Rory that she looked normal so she headed out the door for Luke's diner, her habitual breakfast establishment. It felt strange to leave the house without her mom, to actually lock the door behind her because there wouldn't be anyone home until after she got out of school today. And she would have to start work at Mrs. Kim's today too.

Rory entered the diner, looking around for Jess but didn't see him. She did see Luke, who looked completely overwhelmed by the many hungry customers.

"Hey Rory." he almost barked at her. Rory smiled a little, knowing he meant well. "I'll be with you in a minute."

"It's okay. I'm going to get Jess, he should be helping you." Rory said, knowing this was the perfect opportunity to talk.

Just as she was about to go up, Shane walked in. Rory almost panicked. How could she talk to Jess if Shane was here?

Shane looked around for Jess, and not seeing him was about to go upstairs. "He isn't here." spat out Rory. "He just went outside to smoke."

"Who?" Shane asked, not comprehending.

Rory rolled her eyes a little. "Jess. He just left."

"Oh, thanks." Said Shane, looking at her somewhat suspiciously as she turned and left. As soon as she was gone Rory darted up the stairs. She felt steps close behind her. She turned to see Shane.

"Were you trying to get rid of me?" Shane asked. "I didn't believe you so I followed you. Why are you going upstairs?"

Rory was about to answer when Jess opened the door to his and Luke's apartment. "What's with all the noise?" he asked irritably.

Shane pushed past Rory and glued herself onto Jess's face but Jess was distracted, having seen Rory on the steps to his apartment.

"What are you doing here?" He asked with his customary bitterness.

"I just wanted to talk to you about something. But it can wait." Rory, seeing Shane on him was reminded that he did have a girlfriend, and probably wasn't looking for another one. "In fact, just forget about it." And Rory turned and ran back down the stairs.

Face burning, Rory left the diner and walked down to the lake, trying to regain her composure. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt so embarrassed. Rory sat down on the bridge, looking at her watch and realizing that she had only 20 minutes before she had to leave for school. She closed her eyes, feeling the breeze on her face and reminding herself that it would have been a lot more embarrassing if she had talked to Jess and had been rejected. She took a deep breath and was starting to feel a little better when she sensed someone next to her. Opening her eyes, she noticed a shadow falling across her. Then the person sat down next to her, feet hanging from the bridge. Rory looked over, knowing who she would see. Jess sat there, looking at her.

"What was that about?" he asked.

Rory shook her head. "Nothing. I was going to get you to help Luke out."

Jess looked at her as if he didn't quite believe her but seemed to accept it. "Nothing else going on?" he asked.

Rory decided to take a chance. She wasn't going to be in Stars Hollow often and she didn't want to lose this chance.

"Dean and I broke up last night." she told him quietly.

She saw his eyes widen slightly, his mouth parted as if this had opened up a new world of possibilities. But then he seemed to regain his composure in a second and he just nodded. "What happened?" he asked.

"I broke up with him. I'm going to be living with my grandparents for the next few months." Rory told him.

"Do you think you'll get back together when you move back?" he asked.

Rory shook her had. "No." she said decidedly. "It's over."

"Rory..." he started to say, but then stopped.

Rory hoped that he would continue, that he would admit that they liked each other, should be together, but he didn't.

"Don't you have to go to school?" he just asked instead.

She looked at the time. "Crap!" she said, and started running towards her car. "I'm late."

Jess smiled after her as she went, then got up and slowly started walking back to the diner.


	3. Chapter 3

Rory drove back to Stars Hollow after school, going directly to Lane's house to start work.

She was pleased to see that Mrs. Kim was already gone.  
"I got a long introduction to everything after school." Lane informed her. "Mrs. Kim asked me to show you when you got here. Then she wants us to work on our homework and think about Jesus if there are no customers."

Rory smiled. "Well then show me the ropes!" she said.

There were no customers for most of the day so Rory and Lane spent the time working on homework. Rory was reminded of when they were children growing up together and going to the same school as Lane when they had always done their homework together after school.

"Mom doesn't really want Dean to come over, even though he is my lab partner." Lane told her. "But I figured she would never know, so he is coming over at 4:30."

She gave her friend a teasing smile. "I knew you would be happy about it."

Rory crushed the urge to tell Lane the truth. But she couldn't do it, no matter how much she trusted her. So she forced a smile onto her face and tried to be brave. She hadn't assumed that she and Dean would have to spend so much time together right away. And she couldn't stop thinking about Jess and how he had looked on the bridge. She got warm all over thinking about how he had looked at her. It had been different that time, there had been the weight of possibility hanging between them and the air had been tense. And sexy. Rory sighed and turned back to her paper. Lane, assuming that she was thinking about seeing Dean soon gave her a smile and a small nudge before looking down on her own book.

Sure enough, Dean arrived right on time. And he wasn't surprised to see Rory there because she had told him that she was working there. He gave her a smile although she could tell that he wasn't quite sure how to act. She gave him a brief look as if to ask if he remembered their deal. He nodded slightly so Rory jumped up and gave him a hug. "Dean!" she said.

He looked pained, then remembered his role and hugged her back. "Hey Rory, hey Lane."

"Hi." said Lane.

Dean sat down with them at the table.

"I was right in the middle of something." Rory explained. "If you two want to get your science homework out of the way."

They both nodded and opened their books. Lane seemed to suspect that something was off as she glanced between the two of them but there was nothing to confirm her suspicions. Dean sometimes looked up at Rory but she steadfastly refused to meet his eye and focused on what she was reading.

When the awkward studying session was over it was almost time for Mrs. Kim to return.

"I'd better go." said Dean.

"Okay. Rory if you want you can go to. I'll be here until Mrs. Kim gets home. Although I won't be there on Tuesday, I have to attend a church event. And my mom will be picking me up on the way home so I actually have to be there. Do you think you can handle this place by yourself?"

"I'm sure it'll be fine." Rory said, gathering up her books. Dean threw his arm around her as they walked out the door together.

Rory knew that it would probably be best if Dean was seen walking her home, then she could get away from him and start packing her things for the move. But as she stepped out the door she saw Jess there. And he obviously saw her, there with Dean, and he had his arm around her. He definitely didn't look like someone who had just been dumped, nor did they look broken up. A brief look of confusion crossed his face then he seemed to comprehend and instead look somewhat bitter. Rory broke away from Dean, then realized that there were other people around and she had to keep up the illusion. So she cuddled back up next to Dean and passed Jess without saying anything to him. Dean looked slightly triumphant as he walked her home.

"Want to hang out for a while?" he asked when they got to her house.

"Oh I can't, I have to pack." she said.

"I'm great at packing." he said, letting himself in. "What do you need me for?"

"Actually.." she began but Dean was already throwing her things into a box.

"Wait, I don't need that!" she said, rushing over. "And those are getting wrinkled."

She started rearranging what he was doing. Realizing that he wasn't about to leave she sighed and resigned herself to his company for now and directed him what to do.

Several hours had passed when she was finally able to get rid of him and collapsed on the couch, sweaty from packing. She had finally been able to convince him to leave when there was nothing left to pack but her underwear. She wasn't sure if he had really just wanted to help. He wouldn't do that to her deliberately just to keep her away from Jess, would he?

Finally when she rested a little she decided to call Jess. She wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to say to him or how she could explain, but she hadn't liked the look on his face when he saw her with Dean. She felt deceitful, which she had been, but she wasn't really trying to hurt him. She picked up the phone and dialed the number.

"Hello?" the voice on the other end said. Rory smiled a little as she instantly recognized Jess's voice.

"Hey, it's Rory."

"What do you want?" he asked her, not sounding too friendly.

"I wanted to talk to you." she said.

"Well I'm a little busy. With my girlfriend." he said as Rory heard the plaintive voice on the other end calling Jess back to bed.

Rory's face burned. Now she was mad. Sure, he had every right to have sex with his girlfriend. Had he not understood her earlier on the bridge? Did he not want to be with her? And if he liked her, why was he off just having sex with someone like Shane?

She hung up the phone, willing herself not to burst into tears. She wasn't going to be that girl. If he didn't care about her, fine, she wasn't going to sit and dwell on him. She pulled out a book from her bag and started reading.

When Rory woke up the next morning she realized that she had fallen asleep while reading. She closed the book, looked at the time and jumped up to get ready for school. Fortunately, she was actually a little early so she would have time to figure out how the hell to cook breakfast. There was no way she was going to Luke's. Not today, probably not ever. And the last thing she needed to see was the Shane/Jess hybrid that had graced her breakfast the previous morning. Thinking about that, Rory found that she had completely lost her appetite, which solved her problem anyway. She walked out early and got into her car, which was now filled with her things. She locked the door and said a silent, temporary farewell to the house. She wouldn't be back in Stars Hollow before Tuesday, probably. Tonight after school she would be going directly to her Grandparents house. She purposely avoided passing the diner on the way to school, and once there felt more able to relax. She still couldn't help the sting of jealousy that sprung up every time she thought about Jess or Shane and she thought about them a lot. She finally came to the conclusion that Jess was a jerk and a pig and she wanted nothing more to do with him, ever. Dean briefly came to mind but she dismissed that possibility. Their breakup had been a good thing and even if she wasn't dating Jess, her crush on him had showed her that Dean wasn't the guy she really wanted to be with.

This reverie was interrupted by a couple, wildly kissing in front of her locker. Paris was already there, staring down Tristan and his flavor of the week.

"I really need to get to my locker." she informed them.

Rory gave Paris a somewhat helpless look. "Maybe we can scoot them over a little." she told her. Finally, Paris grabbed Tristan by the shoulder of his jacket and manhandled him over a few spaces. This didn't interrupt the slobbering even a little. Rory wrinkled her nose a little in disgust, then opened the locker and exchanged her books.

"Same time tomorrow?" she said to Paris. Paris gave her a wry smile in return. "I'll be here. And I'm sure they will too, so yes, same time tomorrow."

They walked in opposite directions.

Rory finished up the day and then drove to her grandparents house where they had the entire staff waiting to welcome her to the house. "Rory!" said Emily, giving her a hug. "This will just be so much fun."

Richard gave her a hug as well.

"Lift my granddaughters boxes carefully!" shrieked Emily.

"Oh grandma, they aren't very heavy. I can get them." Rory assured her.

"Nonsense. You are my granddaughter and you are living here now. You need to get used to having servants. Besides, you have to dress for dinner. We have a special surprise for you."

Alarm bells immediately went off in Rory's head but she knew she was trapped with no hope for escape.

"Now Rory" began her grandfather. "We know that you are dating this Dean character, but we really wanted to introduce you to a more refined circle during your time here, so we invited a young man from our acquaintance."

"We aren't forcing you into anything," continued Emily, even though they were "we just want you to take a look at your options. Give someone else a chance. And at least he can introduce you to more suitable companions than Dean and Jane."

"Lane." was all Rory could say in return. "It's Lane."

"Fine fine, Lane." said Emily agreeably.

"If I agree to this, and I give him a fair chance and nothing happens will you accept that and not try to set me up with people for the rest of the time I'm here?" Rory asked, convinced that she could get through one night of this, but not four months.

"That sounds reasonable." said Richard. "You have a deal."

"But it has to be a fair chance. You can't decide off hand that you don't like people like your mother does." her grandmother hastened to add.

Rory extended her hand and they shook on it.

Somewhat relieved, Rory headed inside. She was followed by Emily.

"Rory go straight into the shower and then I'll have Elaine lay something out on the bed for you to wear."

"Fine grandma." Rory said without much enthusiasm. Why oh why hadn't she listened more to her mom's warnings?


	4. Chapter 4

By the time Rory was showered and changed it was nearly time for dinner. Because it was a Friday Night Dinner Rory was dressed all fancy, wondering what loser she was about to meet. She stared at her feet, knowing that she should soak up the last few precious moments before she was called downstairs and expected to behave like a 'young lady'. What was worse, all she could think about was Jess. And a sudden surge of sympathy for her mom who doubtless had to undergo many of these mating rituals.

The maid knocked on the door and Rory answered.

"The guest is here Miss." the maid said.

"Thanks." said Rory, hopping off the bed, slipping into her shoes, glancing quickly into the mirror so she wouldn't disappoint her grandparents, and then reluctantly following the maid downstairs.

"Rory, there you are." said Richard as she appeared.

"I'd like you to meet Tristan DuGrey." Emily said. "Tristan, this is our granddaughter, Rory."

Tristan looked about to laugh. Rory immediately shot him a look to be quiet and pretended that she didn't know him. Her grandparents must have forgotten the abortive meeting at her 16th birthday party.

"Pleased to meet you." she said politely. Fortunately, he caught on and gave no further indication that they knew each other. Maybe this could somehow work in her favor... Rory wasn't yet sure how, but at least she knew Tristan. Not that knowing him had ever been a good thing, but at least she knew what she was dealing with now.

They chatted over drinks and dinner, Tristan keeping up the act for which Rory was infinitely grateful.

Then Richard and Emily conveniently left them alone for a few minutes, so they could get to know each other better.

"So, funny seeing you here." Tristan said with a smile.

"Yeah well my grandparents don't always have good taste." Rory shot back. Then the idea came to her. Rory decided to make Tristan a similar offer to what she had made to Dean, although she felt strangely like Lane as she contemplated approaching Tristan about the deception. Lane was always the one who had to sneak around, not her!

"Tristan, obviously this isn't going to go where my grandparents thought it would." she began. He looked slightly disappointed.

"Ah yes, the boyfriend rears its ugly head." he said.

"I don't have a boyfriend." she told him. "But I want to make my grandparents happy. So will you pretend that we are dating? I mean at least in front of them sometimes? We don't have to pretend to like each other at school if you don't want, but I really need to get them off my back. They promised if I made it through this dinner and gave you a fair chance they wouldn't keep trying to set me up but I don't believe them for a minute. I mean, they wouldn't do it overtly but I'm sure people would end up dropping by all the time and I don't think that I could handle it. So will you?"

He looked amused. "What would I get out of it?" he asked.

"Well... I'm not sure." she said wishing she had something to offer.

"If you don't have a boyfriend why do we have to pretend?" he asked, moving his hand over hers.

She pulled away a little. "Oh please Tristan." she said rolling her eyes. "Besides, you seemed...well really really close to that girl at school."

"Oh her. Yeah... I do want to get rid of her. Fine, let's do it. I'll pretend to be your boyfriend to your grandparents and at school. That'll keep some of those girls off me for a while."

Rory smiled. "Perfect. And you don't have to come over here if you don't want. I mean every now and then you should probably call or something. And I will find a way to make it up to you."

"No problem." he said giving her a charming, if somewhat arrogant smile.

"I'll help you with your homework." she offered. "I know you've been having some trouble in a couple classes."

"That sounds fair." he responded.

She felt like hugging him but, remembering how much she disliked him, didn't. "So I would say give me a week to 'break up with my boyfriend' before we start 'officially dating.' My grandparents still think I'm with Dean." Rory felt bad about lying to her grandparents, but really they would be a lot happier this way. And that would make their time living together infinitely easier. But why was Tristan being so nice?

On Monday at school Tristan gave Rory a wink but was still kissing the girl in front of the lockers when Paris shoved her way in between them. Rory smiled at him for almost the first time ever. Once they had a minute alone she whispered to him "Once we are together you can cheat on me if you want. I know you can't stay away from the girls."

He looked fake shocked. "I would never cheat on you Rory Gilmore. You wound me."

She laughed a little. "Just try not to do it right in front of me. That wouldn't look good."

"Rest assured, I'll keep my romantic trysts far away from you." he told her.

"So.. we never actually set a day to officially start dating. What about Thursday, are you doing anything?" she asked him.

"Are you asking me out?" he asked flirtatiously.

"Maybe." she said, equally flirtatiously, then returned to her normal voice. "We should at least go on one fake date before we are official. You don't even have to go anywhere with me. Just pick me up, drop me off somewhere, do what you want for a reasonable amount of time, then drop me off back at home."

"As much fun as that really does sound, how about we actually do hang out. I mean, we are going to be spending time together, we should be friends." He suggested.

It made a lot of sense so Rory agreed. "Fine. What do you want to do on Thursday?"

"I'll surprise you. I'll pick you up at 7 on Thursday at your grandparents house. Oh and dress nice, I like the girls I go out with to look hot."

Rory rolled her eyes. "Fine, see you at 7."

Then they separated and went back to pretending that there was nothing between them. At least for now.

Her head was already swimming a little from all the complicated relationships. And why again was she doing this? She wasn't dating Jess, she wasn't dating Dean and she wasn't dating Tristan... so why was she pining after one and faking with two?

Rory was thankful that she didn't have to go to Stars Hollow today, so she headed back to her grandparents house for a night of being grilled about how much she adored Tristan. Again. This subject had played ad nauseum in the Gilmore household since Friday Night Dinner when Emily and Richard had forced her to confess that no, Tristan wasn't that bad. Since then it had been nothing but adulation for him and more information about him. And oh wasn't Tristan such a nice young man. And so handsome! And Richard had pointed out that they attended Chilton together, so she should seek him out in school and thank him for attending dinner. Rory had faithfully promised and then reviewed her mom's list of preferred suicide methods. Yes, it had started as a joke but several items were looking more and more inviting. Lorelai called every day and Rory was careful not to mention anything negative to her mom. She assured her that she was having a great time, that she could see Dean twice a week and that she was happy. The Gilmore's had agreed with her that there was no reason Lorelai had to know about Tristan, at least not until it turned into something serious. At least it had been Emily's suggestion, who knew that Lorelai didn't take kindly to their meddling in Rory's life, and Rory had happily gone along with it. So now Stars Hollow and her mom would think she was still with Dean, Chilton and her grandparents would think she was with Tristan... and Jess was still with Shane. The most important part of the whole thing was the only part that hadn't gone perfectly. 

When Rory got into Stars Hollow the next day after school the first thing she saw was Jess. Walking down the street with his nose in a book. Rory had been so confused by her life that she had barely had time to read at all lately, and resentment towards him welled up in her. Why would he pick Shane? It was doubtful she even knew how to read.

She realized that she had slowed her car to a crawl as she approached him and he looked up from his book, waiting for her to say something. It was too late to get away now, she was going to have to talk to him.

"Hi." she said.

"Hey." he responded. "How is Hartford?"

She felt the urge to tell him how horrible it was but instead gave a noncommittal "Fine."

"That's good." he said.

"How's Shane?" she asked.

"Fine. Dean?" he said.

"Okay I guess... we still aren't together." she said, not knowing why she was telling him this.

He looked skeptical. "So you are friends who walk around together holding hands?" he asked.

"Yes!" she said almost spitefully.

"And you are wearing his bracelet as a memento?" he queried.

Rory realized how everything must have looked to him. She didn't want to talk about it on the street so she pushed open the passenger door and he climbed in.

"I don't know why I'm telling you this." She told him. "You can't tell anyone that Dean and I broke up. We are pretending that we are still together so that it won't get back to mom that we broke up. I know she would be worried and want to come home and this is such a great opportunity for her. I don't want to ruin it."

"Yeah but if you are still doing the same things as when you were going out, what's the difference?" he rightfully pointed out.

"Well it's only pretend. I'm actually paying him." she said, somewhat ashamed. "We don't hang out in private, just in public. And my grandparents know that we broke up. Or at least they will soon."

"So if you are still pretending to date why did you break up in the first place?" he asked her, confused.

"It just... wasn't right." Rory said truthfully. "He wasn't who I wanted to be with."

Jess searched her expression for any hint that she might want to be with him, but Rory kept her poker face on. She wasn't going to give him any satisfaction, especially when he had been so rude to her.

"Oh. Well it's good you broke up then." he said.

"Yup... Want me to drop you off somewhere? I have to get to work."

"Work?" he asked.

"I'm working at Mrs. Kims this semester. You know, to pay Dean."

"Is Lane there too?" he asked.

"Sometimes. Not today." she answered.

"I can walk home from Mrs. Kims." he said so she drove to the antique store. They hopped out of the car and Rory headed inside. To her surprise, Jess followed her up.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I thought we could talk." he responded.

They entered just as Lane was about to leave. "Thank god you are here. I don't want to be late." She said, rushing out the door. She was in too much of a hurry to even register that it was Jess with Rory, not Dean.

They walked inside and Rory sat at the table where she and Lane always did their homework. "So what do you want to talk about?" she asked.

"You seem different." he said.

"I'm just stressed. I miss my mom and as much as I love my grandparents, they are driving me crazy." It felt good to confide in him. "You won't tell anyone about Dean and I, will you?"

"I promise I won't. As long as you don't tell anyone about this." And Jess leaned over, lightly turned her chin up and gave her a kiss.

Rory instantly flushed, then pulled away. She gave him a stern look. "Why would you think I want to kiss you. I don't want to kiss you." she told him.

He looked a little confused. "You've been sending me all these signals..." he said.

"Well maybe I did like you. But obviously so does Shane. And you seem to like her an awful lot." Rory said.

"Shane... is a very uncomplicated person. I prefer my women complicated." he told her. "We broke up last night."

"Why? You seemed so close?" Rory asked, bitterly remembering her phone call to him the last time they had spoken.

"Rory I've always liked you. But I couldn't stand to see you with Dean. And I didn't want to wait around for someone who didn't feel the same way as I did. But Shane and I got in a fight and I just couldn't do it anymore. I broke up with her."

"I'm not going to be in Stars Hollow a lot." Rory told him. "And you can't come to my grandparents house. They would never let me set foot outside if they knew about you."

"We'll work it out. Although I'm not too crazy about the pretending to date Dean thing." He said, his fingers gently touching her hair.

"Yeah well me neither. But as soon as mom gets back everything will go back to normal and we won't have to pretend anything anymore." Rory assured him. "You really like me?" she asked.

"Of course." Jess pulled her close for another kiss.

Just then, Rory heard the bell on the door jangle. "Crap." she hissed, and shoved Jess off his chair, pushing him into a tiny space between two large pieces of furniture. This move knocked her from her chair as well and she found herself kneeling on the floor with a woman staring at her.

She jumped up. "Can I help you?" she asked.

After she had helped the woman she helped Jess get back out. As he brushed the dust off she pushed him out the door. "I need this job, you can't be here." she told him.

"But we'll talk later?" he asked.

"I'll call you tonight." She shut the door after him, straightened up any mess and then started on her homework, still tingling from the all too brief kiss.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hey, sorry it's taken me so long to update. I'm moving so things have been crazy. Thanks for reading!**

* * *

Rory berated herself on the drive home for giving in to him so easily, for forgiving him and letting him kiss her.

"You gotta face it Gilmore, he makes you stupid." she said, half aloud in the silence of the car. She was too tense to even play music. She had to go home, pretend that everything was fine and act normal in front of her grandparents. Besides, tonight was the night she was going to break it to them that things were over with Dean. They should be thrilled about that.

As she neared the Gilmore residence she managed to dredge up a few fake tears. 'Mom would be so proud of me.' she thought. 'I'm lying to my grandparents and pretending to cry.' The thought of her mom made her ready to cry in earnest, so Rory got out of the car and made her way into the house.

Emily looked at Rory in shock. "Rory what's wrong?" she asked with concern.

Rory sniffled a little. "Dean broke up with me." she half sobbed. "He said he didn't want a relationship where we only saw each other a couple times a week."

"Rory that's terrible. I can't believe the nerve of that boy. To think he could do better than you!" Emily seemed furious.  
Rory wondered if maybe she should have told Emily that she was the one who had broken up with Dean, not the other way around. So quickly she backpedaled.

"Well he was kinda right." she said. "I mean, it would be easier to date someone I saw every day at school."

Emily took the bait and jumped on it. "You are absolutely right." she said. "There are so many nice young men at Chilton. I'm sure you will forget all about Dean soon."

She saw the bracelet on Rory's wrist that Rory had forgotten to take off. "Here lets burn this." she said. "It'll feel good."

She was about to snatch it when Rory grabbed it. "I just want to keep it. You know, someday I'll want to remember." she said tragically.

"Fine." said Emily and Rory ran upstairs to squirrel it away for the next time she would need it.

Once upstairs Rory called Dean on her cell phone.

"Hey Rory, how are you?" he asked, sounding so normal she almost wondered if she had actually broken up with him or just thought she had.

"I'm fine. I'm calling because I'll be in Stars Hollow for work on Thursday but I have to go somewhere else right afterwards. And I'm getting paid on Thursday too, so I can give you your money if you meet me right after work."

"Sure, no problem." he said. "I'll be there."

"Okay, great. Oh and please don't call me unless you really have to, like there is a change of plans or something. And if you have to call, call my cell." she instructed him.

"Aren't we still friends?" he asked, sounding hurt.

"Yes of course we are. I just want to keep my grandparents off my back."

"Okay, I got it. See you Thursday." he said.

"See you." she turned off the phone and got ready for dinner.

She called Jess after dinner.

He at least sounded happy to hear from her.

"When will I see you again?" he asked her.

"I'll be there for work tomorrow." she told him. "But my grandparents expect me home right after work. And I have to meet Dean to pay him after work too. So I'm not sure if we can meet up tomorrow. I'll be back on Tuesday." she told him.

"That's a really long time to wait." he told her.

"I'll try to get away on the weekend. I'm sure I can make some excuse to my grandparents."

"Okay. Call me with the details. And we can talk more when we see each other." she told him. "You haven't changed your mind, have you?"

"No. Have you?" he asked.

"No." she responded.

"Call me then." he urged.

"I will, I promise."

They hung up the phone and Rory smiled a little. Maybe, just maybe, all this madness would actually be worth it.

The next morning it was all over school that Tristan had broken up with whats her name. There was no morning make out by the lockers, for which Rory was grateful, and she waited all day for Tristan to ask her out.

He finally appeared by her side at the end of the day. Making sure there were people around he leaned up against the locker next to her, giving her a cocky smile.

"What do you want, Tristan?" she asked, hating how much he was milking this.

"So I guess you heard I broke up with Cindy." he said.

"I might have heard something about that." she commented casually. She tried to act normal. People would get suspicious if she was too friendly.

Then Tristan, bringing to bear every bit of arrogance he could muster finally asked her out.

"So I guess that means you finally get your chance." he told her.

Rory gritted her teeth but tried to act even a little flattered. She plastered on a vacant expression and sappy smile, the best she could muster under the circumstances.

"Want to go out tomorrow night?" he asked her.

"I guess." she said, trying her best to deflate him while still agreeing. After all, he was the one doing her a favor, let him get his twisted thrills out of embarrassing her if he wanted.

"I'll pick you up at 7." he told her then sauntered off.

There were amazed stares from everyone in the hall. It was no secret that Tristan had a major crush on her and that Rory couldn't have been less interested, yet here she was agreeing to date him. Rory realized that she had gotten into more than she bargained for. She and Tristan were going to be the gossip item of the year.

Amid the stares of her classmates Rory headed out the door and into the Jeep. Rory went home and told her grandparents that she had a date.

"He asked and I guess I didn't have anything to do so I said yes." she told them. "He is picking me up tomorrow at 7."

"That's fantastic!" Emily said, excited.

"I'm so happy to hear that." Richard told her. "He is a fine boy and comes from a fine family."

"And so handsome." Emily reiterated. "Tonight I am taking you shopping. You have to have something new to wear."

Rory inwardly sighed but agreed. Shopping was fun, but it was never the same without her mom. And she could only imagine what hideous ensemble Emily would try to dress her in. Something fit for a 60 year old woman. Or someone in the DAR. Or a 60 year old woman in the DAR.

But she forced herself to respond. "That sounds fun grandma."

"Oh and we can get our hair and our nails done." Her grandmother was working herself into a frenzy of excitement now. "I am so glad you are here with us for the next few months."

"You don't have too much homework, do you?" asked Richard. "Your school should be your first priority."

"I have some, but not too much." Rory told him.

"Well then why don't you go and work on your homework and we can go out after dinner." suggested Emily.

"Sounds great." and Rory went upstairs, half dreading and half looking forward to the rest of the night. Despite their differences in taste Rory really did like her grandparents and actually did enjoy the time they spent together. As long as the evening didn't involve an endless effusion of adoration for Tristan. She wasn't sure how much more of that she could take.

The evening did go better than planned however. They did have fun getting manicures and pedicures and then Emily purposely asked direction to the most young, hip fashion store and bought Rory a reasonable outfit. Rory had to convince her grandmother that she didn't want to wear something too fancy, that would just be awkward. And Emily finally seemed to understand and relented about the ball gown and the fancy hair.

"You should skip work tomorrow to get ready." Emily told her.

"I made a promise to Mrs. Kim." Rory told her. "Besides, this is a casual date. Nothing too fancy and I don't want to look like I spent all afternoon getting ready."

"Well at least do something with your hair and work on your makeup if you can while you are working." Emily told her.

"Fine, I'll do that." Rory promised. As much as she was dreading spending this much time with Tristan, this planning was actually somewhat fun and she was curious about where Tristan was taking her. It was probably the only 'real' date they would ever have because this one was for show, to establish the relationship. And she would have something to relate to her anxious grandparents who would want every detail. After that, they could just get together sometimes so that she could follow through on her part of the bargain and help him with his homework. Her grandparents would assume that they were having a date instead of working on projects for school.

As she was getting ready for bed her cell phone rang.

She picked it up and heard the familiar tone of her mom and best friend.

"Hey kid, I didn't wake you up, did I?" the voice asked.

"No, I was still awake. How is everything there?" Rory asked.

"Great. Crazy. It's actually pretty insane and also just about the most exhilarating thing I've ever been involved in. Besides your conception, and maybe your birth. Although I'd classify that more under painful than exhilarating. Either way, I'm learning a lot. What are you doing kid?"

"Well I'm going on a date tomorrow." Rory said.

"Oh where is Dean taking you?" Lorelai asked.

Rory ignored the Dean part. "I don't know. Its a surprise."

"Aww that sounds like fun. How are things with the Gilmores?"

"They are fine. Grandma took me out to get a new outfit and we got our nails done." Rory told her.

"Oh, so you don't need your mother at all anymore."

"Nope, I guess not. So stay away as long as you want." joked Rory. "In fact, I want to permanently change my residence."

"Traitor."

"Abandoner."

"Well I should let you go. It's late and you have school tomorrow. Make sure you look at a picture of me at least twenty times a day." Lorelai told her.

"I'll make it thirty. Bye mom." Rory said and hung up the phone.

Then she curled up in bed and promptly fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Hey everyone, thanks for your patience. Sorry it has taken me so long to update. I promise that it'll be faster next time. Between my psycho new cat and psycho new neighbors I haven't had much time.

And Sage, Jess _was_ a jerk when they dated! I like him but it's undeniable. And yes, I like it too!

* * *

The next day was a busy one for Rory. She got to school amid the stares of everyone in her class. Paris almost immediately sought her out.  
"Are you dating Tristan?" she asked accusingly.

Crap, she had forgotten about Paris and her feelings for Tristan. How could she assure her it wasn't serious or really anything without telling her the truth?

"Not really. I mean we are going out tonight because I am helping him with his homework." Rory told her, more or less truthfully.

"Oh sure, nice story Gilmore. You know you really had me fooled with all the times you said you didn't like him. I should have known better." Paris stormed off and Rory felt horrible. She hadn't considered the repercussions to anyone else when she had come up with this plan. Someday though Paris was going to have to face that Tristan just didn't return her feelings.

Rory got through the day more or less intact, ignoring all the gossip that was floating around about her and Tristan. This whole plan was starting to seem way more trouble than it was worth. After all she hadn't even dated Jess yet and here she was about to go on a date with Tristan of all people. And her grandparents were probably already sending out the wedding invitations.

She tried to act normal as she drove to Stars Hollow for another afternoon of drudgery. At least this time Lane would be there. Rory wished more than anything that she could confide in her best friend but Lane was known to crack in the face of her mom's formidable presence and Rory just couldn't take the chance that Lane would actually confess to something.

Mrs. Kim was still there when she arrived and she looked agitated. Lane was nowhere to be seen.

"Mrs. Kim is something wrong?" Rory asked.

"I sent my friend in the other day to check on you and she said you were acting weird." Mrs. Kim told her.

Rory looked surprised. "Weird? How so?" she asked.

"She said you were kneeling on the floor. What were you doing?" Mrs. Kim demanded.

"I was... uh praying. I had an unkind thought about someone." Rory instantly heard herself say. Who would believe that?

"So you suddenly felt the urge to pray?" Mrs. Kim asked suspiciously.

Rory nodded. "I just wanted things to be right with the lord." she said, feeling decidedly foolish.

To her surprise, Mrs. Kim nodded with satisfaction. "Good. I know that despite your mother you do have some morals. Go join Lane in the back, I have to leave."

Mrs. Kim swept out the door and Rory breathed a sigh of relief as she headed to the back of the store. She didn't pay attention and tripped over the Korean girl who had been hiding behind some nearby furniture to hear the conversation.  
"Ow!" protested Lane.

"Sorry." Rory apologized.

"I can't believe she bought that." Lane told her. "What were you really doing on your knees? Do I want to know?"

"Well J-Dean came to visit me hear and I was shoving him out of sight when the woman came in." Rory explained.

"Oooh intrigue!" Lane said. "Sneaking in your boyfriend. You are so lucky. You are here only a couple days a week so it's romantic. The sneaking around loses its appeal when its your life."

Rory nodded, for once completely understanding Lane's viewpoint.

The two sat down and started on their homework. Unfortunately, Dean walked in unannounced. Rory gritted her teeth a little.

"Hey Dean." said Lane as Rory stood up to give him an obligatory hug. "I heard about the "praying" incident." Lane teased.

Dean looked confused. "The what?" he asked.

"Oh you know." Rory tried to sound casual. "How you came in here on Tuesday and I had to shove you behind some furniture and fell on my knees. I told Mrs. Kim I was praying."

Dean looked somewhat jealous. "Oh yeah, right I forgot about that."

He sat next to Rory as they did their homework together, now and then giving her a small squeeze on the knee or some other affectionate gesture. Rory knew she couldn't say anything because of Lane but wished that he would stop.

Mrs. Kim was late getting back that night, of course. Rory looked anxiously at the time at 10 minutes past 6. She bit her lip. Then she fidgeted. Lane looked up. "Do you have to go somewhere?" she asked.

Rory nodded. "I have to get somewhere by seven."

"I can just stay here by myself." Lane offered.

"Would you get the money from your mom and give it to Dean?" Rory asked. "I'm sure I'll see him this weekend and I can get it then."

"Sounds fine." Lane said.

"Thanks Lane. Bye Dean!" Rory ran out the door, glad that her tardiness gave her an excuse not to kiss him goodbye.

She hopped into the car and sped home, finding a very disapproving grandmother waiting for her.

"You only have 15 minutes!" Her grandmother exclaimed. "You get upstairs right now and hop in the shower. And hurry!"

Rory darted upstairs, jumped into the shower, then came out and pulled on the agreed upon outfit that was already laid out on the bed. She brushed her hair quickly and then rushed downstairs, knowing she was already late.

She could hear her grandparents talking with Tristan in the foyer. "Crap." she muttered, and not for the last time. Tristan seemed to be highly amused by the entire thing.

"Rory we were just getting to know your date." Richard said, as if they had never met before.

"Yes we've been having a marvelous chat." Emily added.

"I'm sorry I'm late." Rory apologized.

"No problem." said Tristan, eying her up and down. "You look good."

Emily beamed. Rory noticed that Tristan seemed dressed up for this too. She had an overanxious mildly psychotic grandmother who had pushed her into it. What was his excuse?

"So do you." she forced out, although to be fair she wasn't lying. They finally were able to escape and walk down the driveway where Tristan's BMW was parked. He even walked around and opened the door for her, but with his customary smirk firmly in place.

Rory slid into the luxurious seat and realized how nice it was to be sitting down. And being halfway relaxed. Then she remembered who she was on a date with and tensed up all over again.

Tristan pulled out the driveway a little too quickly for her taste and they were soon speeding wildly down the road.

"Where are we going?" Rory asked.

"You'll see." he answered.

"Are we really in this much of a hurry?" Rory asked, grabbing for the handle in the door for safety.

"Well you were late." he informed her with a cocky grin.

Rory realized that there was no use in arguing with him so she just sat back and prayed to survive. She was glad she had gotten to kiss Jess at least once before getting into this death cab.

He finally pulled into the parking lot of a very fancy restaurant and opened her door for her. Rory stepped out, glad that she had dressed up at least somewhat.

"Um Tristan this wasn't really necessary." she told him. "I mean, we aren't really dating."

"I thought it would be fun." he said as they walked towards the door. "Besides this is a business agreement, so we should have a formal business dinner to hammer out all the details."  
Rory laughed a little. "Fine." she said.

"And act like you like me a little bit." he told her. "Your grandparents probably know half the clientèle here."

He had a point, and Rory realized that she had been walking as far from him as possible so she nodded, went over to him and slipped her arm through his. "Sorry. This is new to me. I mean, I'm kinda dating someone." she told him.

Was there a trace of disappointment?

"When did that start?" he asked her.

"Two days ago." she told him as they were instantly lead to their seats by a snobby maitre de.

"Oh so soul mates." he said.

"Shut up." Rory told him.

"So why do you need me?" he asked casually.

"Well my grandparents would hate him more than Dean." she told him.

"Oh they hated the bagboy? Thats a shock!" Tristan said.

Rory couldn't help laughing a little. "Well, as I said, they obviously don't have great taste. They like you." she told him, but teasingly. She didn't want to actually hurt his feelings.

They ended up having a good time. Rory couldn't believe how easy he was to talk to for someone she had all but hated until recently.

When the check came Tristan looked around for a panicked moment. "I forgot my wallet." he told her.

"What?" Rory's eyes widened in shock. She started sweating. Her teeny tiny purse contained exactly four items: a cell phone, lip gloss, a compact and her keys. She didn't even have any emergency money since she hadn't been paid today. And her grandparents would probably have given her some if they knew she didn't have any but she hadn't thought to ask.

"What are we going to do?" she asked him, heart pounding. It would be just so embarrassing to have to call her grandparents.

"Oh wait, I found it." Tristan said, pulling it out of his pocket. The twinkle in his eyes told her that he had know that all along.

"You rat!" she told him, half furious, half amused. "That was so mean."

They left the restaurant together and Rory tried to be mad at him but couldn't even when he squealed the tires on the way out.

"Where to next?" he asked.

"Home?" she suggested.

"It hasn't been a very long date." he pointed out. "Your grandparents will assume it was a failure."

"Right." she said. "We can start on your homework." she finally suggested.

"Wow you are a fun date." he said sarcastically.

Rory whacked at him with her shoe, which she had taken off to ease her pinched toes.

"Well you come up with something better." she said.

"That is really not hard." he responded.

"Actually, on second thought, its my turn to pick." she said quickly, knowing that anything he had in mind probably wasn't a good idea.

They ended up just going down to the park for a while, throwing the remains of their bread to the ducks swimming around. It was so sickeningly cliché that Rory was sure her grandparents would be thrilled when she told them about it. After a while they finally decided that it wasn't too early to go home so they got in the car and Rory persuaded Tristan to drive at a normal speed this time.

As expected, the Gilmore's were waiting eagerly as Tristan pulled into the driveway, disappearing from the window from which they had been staring out of. But Rory could detect them peaking up at regular intervals to sneak a look. Rory resisted the temptation to roll her eyes and hoped that Tristan wouldn't notice. The last thing she needed was for him to be spreading stories about her crazy grandparents at school.

"I guess I'll have to kiss you goodnight." He whispered to her as he walked her to the door. "Your grandparents are watching."

Sure enough, Rory could observe an eyeball through the key hole in the door. Burning with shame, she sighed a little but leaned in for a quick kiss nonetheless. Tristan locked hands with her, and gave her a very chaste kiss on the lips, conscious that he was being observed by her grandfather and not wanting an enraged porpoise to attack him. Rory pulled back as soon as possible, and face flushed hurried inside, in time to see her grandparents scrambling up from the floor.

"We were just looking for something." Emily said, brushing herself off.

"What?" Rory asked, just to figure out what bizarre excuse they would come up with.

"My contacts." Richard said.

"Grandpa you don't wear contacts." Rory said with a small smile.

"That makes them much easier to lose. I can't keep my eye on them." Her grandfather said gravely.

"So Rory, how was your date?" Emily asked, trying to sound casual but Rory could tell that she was moments away from combustion.

"It was fine." Rory said, trying desperately to think of Jess so she could get all giggly and happy. "We might go out again on the weekend."

"That's wonderful!" Exclaimed Emily.

"Fine young man. Really from a great family." Affirmed Richard.

"Well I'm really tired." Rory said hastily.

"Of course. You have school tomorrow. Off to bed with you." Emily said, giving her a quick hug before scooting her up the stairs to bed.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Sorry for the long delay. A lot has been going on in my life. Out with old boyfriend, in with new. But I'm ecstatic about it, so expect more updates soon!

* * *

In the morning Rory mentally prepared herself for all the gossip that would undoubtedly be going around about her in school. And she had to find a time to talk to Paris. Maybe Paris could be trusted with the secret. But Rory didn't want to count on it. Paris was just vindictive enough to use it against her if they got in a fight and it wasn't worth the effort. So the best she could do would be to tell Paris a half truth and hope she understood. Not likely.

Rory drove to school as slowly as she could, trying to delay the inevitable. But as she pulled into the parking lot a crowd of girls looked up at her and she distinctly saw some pointing and whispering. She smoothed down her hair, took a deep breath and grabbed her bag, shouldering it and walking, eyes down, into the school. She pretended not to hear anything that was going on but knew that everyone was talking about her and Tristan. She got to her locker and started putting her books away when Tristan appeared beside her.

She looked up at him and forced a smile. "So I guess everyone is talking about us." she said.

Instead of responding he pushed her back against the lockers and leaned in for a kiss. Rory swatted at him with her binder. "What the hell are you doing?" She half shrieked.

He looked fakely confused. "This is what I do with my girlfriends at school." he said oh so innocently.

"I'm not your girlfriend!" She hissed at him. "And besides, thats not what _I_ do."

"Fine." He said, leaning back against the lockers. "But admit it, you want to." Rory just rolled her eyes in disgust and was about to walk away when she remembered that she was supposed to be dating the arrogant jerk so she grabbed him by his sleeve and dragged him behind her. "Walk me to class." she snapped at him.

He just trotted after her as she stormed down the hall wondering what the hell she had been thinking by involving Tristan in any plan of hers.

But that weekend Tristan came over to the house to hang out for a while and acted in a much more gentlemanly fashion. They went upstairs, ostensibly to watch tv in Rory's bedroom but once they got up there and Rory shut the door she pulled out the school books.

"We might as well get started on the weekend homework now." She told them. Reluctantly but obediently Tristan produced his own books and, with the tv on in the background as cover, the two got started on their homework. Tristan didn't need as much coaching as Rory had thought, he just needed someone to sit him down and make him finish the work. And it was actually more fun that she would have thought doing homework with someone else. Finally, after a couple hours Rory shut her books and pulled out her phone.

"I've gotta go to Stars Hollow soon." she told Tristan. He looked somewhat grumpy but nodded, shutting his books as well and starting to get his things together. Rory dialed Jess's number and was relieved when he picked up the phone instead of Luke.

"Hey it's me." she told him. "I'm going to try to get away from here for a couple hours. Are you busy?"

"Nope." he said with his usual infuriating monosyllabic answers.

A little too loudly, Tristan asked "Hey Rory where is my book?"

Rory shot him a dirty look and kicked the book at him.

There was silence on the other end of the phone. "Who was that?" Jess finally asked.

"My study-buddy." Rory said, then realized just how stupid that really sounded. "I'll explain later."

"Fine, I'll see you soon. Meet me at Weston's."

"Okay, I'll see you soon." Rory hung up the phone.

"Did you have to say that?" She asked Tristan.

"Why, did I get you in trouble?" he said in a mocking tone.

"Just leave." She said, shoving his backpack at him and turning to walk him out.

She gave him a very icy kiss at the door for the benefit of the maid and then he left. Rory went to find her grandparents. "I'm going to Stars Hollow to see Lane. I've got to tell her about Tristan." she said, trying to look giddy but only succeeding at looking lopsided and mildly retarded.

"That's fine Rory, have a good time." Emily said. "Will you be back for dinner?"

"No, I'll just grab something out there." Rory said, surprised that she had gotten off that easy. They really must be thrilled about Tristan.

"Make sure it's nutritional." Richard reminded her.

Rory nodded but didn't promise anything. There was a lot her mother could forgive while she was gone, but certainly not nutritional foods of any kind.

Rory's heart was racing as she drove to Stars Hollow. Despite all the recent excitement and confusion she had still had time to think about Jess and couldn't wait to see him again. She still was mildly jealous about everything with Shane but she tried to put that out of her mind and just enjoy the fact that she had him and Shane didn't.

Jess was waiting at Weston's when she arrived, reading a book of course. He looked up and smiled slightly. Rory felt like a secret agent as she dropped a note on his table as she went to the counter to order her normal cup of coffee. Or the cup of what shouldn't legally be called coffee as it was actually sugar and various artificial flavors masquerading as coffee. By the time she had her swirled confection in hand Jess had already disappeared. Rory made her way to the door and then sneaked out to Patty's dance studio, which was temporarily empty since Patty was out for the afternoon.

Jess was already inside, waiting for her.

He smiled a little and approached her with a look that made Rory vaguely nervous so she gulped down some of her drink so she wouldn't have to talk to him right away.

"I missed you." He told her softly and Rory felt herself drawn to him. She wasn't sure how but the coffee ended up on the floor and she ended up in Jess's arms, her mouth finding his. After 20 minutes they finally separated. Rory looked down at Jess and noticed the rise in his pants.

"At least that works." she said, then blushed.

Jess laughed a little at her as he sat up himself, running his hands through his hair.

"So tell me about this study buddy." He said casually.

Rory couldn't help smiling at the term. "Well basically, it's this guy I go to school with and my grandparents love him so I'm using him as a patsy like with Dean. But really I'm just helping him with his homework and we are pretending to date for my grandparents. They are so happy they don't question anything I want to do."

"So you are dating this guy in Hartford and Dean in Stars Hollow. Where does that leave me?" Jess asked.

"My secret everywhere boyfriend?" Rory suggested.

"What kind of future do you see us having if your mom loves Dean and your grandparents love this other guy and everyone hates me or doesn't even know about me?"

"I don't know." Rory sighed a little. "Everything has been so complicated and it's just getting worse. I just want to get through the next couple months until my mom gets home and I'll be living in Stars Hollow again and then everyone can know the truth. I know they won't like being lied to but I don't want my mom to worry and I don't want to live through the next couple months with my grandparents breathing down my neck."

"I understand. I guess." Jess said. "But I hate seeing you walk around here with him. And who exactly is this other patsy?"

"Some guy from school named Tristan. He used to be a real jerk but he's gotten better and I am helping him with his homework so he doesn't fail. But this can't get out. I mean not even Lane can know. Promise you won't tell anyone?"

"I promise." Jess said and took advantage of the momentary silence to lean in and give her a small kiss.

"You really are a lot of work, you know." He said.

Rory flashed him a naughty smile. "But worth it, right?"

"I guess. But I'm really confused about the whole thing." Jess said reluctantly.

"I am too." Rory admitted. "But we really just have to make it work for a few months. Then I promise things will be better."

She cuddled back into Jess's arms. "I could fall asleep like this." she murmured.

"But don't." Jess said, regretting that he had to be the responsible one. "You gotta get back before your grandparents panic."

Rory sat up suddenly. "You're right. They'll probably call the national guard if I'm not home on time. Although if I have to listen to one more conversation about how great Tristan is.." Rory stopped when she saw the look on Jess's face. "He's not." She said hurriedly. "He's just rich, and they like rich. Not me though." She said in a rush, then turned her face up expectantly for a kiss.

Jess delivered then helped her to her feet and walked her to her car. As she was about to get in Dean walked up with a slight swagger, throwing his arm around her and giving her a kiss. "There you are." he said, throwing Jess a triumphant look.

"Oh hi Dean." Rory pasted a bright smile on her face.

"So are you going with me to the Fall Festival?" Dean asked, blatantly ignoring Jess. Jess gave Rory a look but Rory had no choice but to nod. "I never miss it." She said with regret.

"Maybe we can double date." Dean suggested. "You can bring Shane." he said.

Rory shot Jess a look. Was he still seeing Shane?

"Fine. I'll see you there." Jess said, and without looking at Rory he turned around and left.

Rory stood stunned, looking after him, until Dean's hand on her arm brought her back into the moment.

"I'd better go." She told him.

Dean nodded and leaned over to give her a kiss. "I'll see you at the festival. Will you be able to get away from your grandparents?"

"Yeah they know how important the town is to me." Rory assured him, unable to stop thinking about Jess and how he had nodded and agreed when Dean mentioned Shane.

"Bye Rory." Dean said, closing her car door behind her.

Rory gave him a slight wave, started the car and headed towards Hartford.  
Rory tried hard to keep her spirits up as she talked with her grandparents. She realized that she had, for once, completely forgotten dinner. But since she had told her grandparents she would eat out there, and she had been gone for a while she couldn't well admit it.

She went upstairs and started reading but the rumbling in her stomach kept interrupting her concentration.

Just at that moment her phone rang. Rory grabbed the phone and answered with a decidedly irritated hello.

"What's wrong?" the voice no the other end asked.

"Tristan?" Rory guessed.

"Yeah it's me. I wanted to set up our next "date" but you don't sound like you're in the best mood."

"I'm just hungry." Rory explained. "We just had a date this afternoon though. We can at least wait until next week. Unless you have something due that you need help on."

"No I guess not." Said Tristan. "I just didn't know if you wanted to plan ahead."

"Well on Friday there is no school and that's also the Fall Festival so I'll be in Stars Hollow."

Tristan snorted. "Fall Festival?" he asked.

"It's fun." Rory said defensively. "Besides, I'm going with my boyfriend."

"Oh." said Tristan. "What about studying on Wednesday? It's halfway through the week and you don't work that day."

"That sounds fine. Is that all?" Rory asked, thinking about sneaking into the kitchen and scrounging up something to eat. Her grandparents must be in bed by now.

"Yeah that's it. See you in school."

"Bye Tristan." Rory snapped the phone shut and decided to be daring. She slipped on her fuzziest padded slippers and decided to risk exiting her room a night, a feat she had never before attempted at her grandparents house.

Rory opened the door and started creeping down the stairs, as silently as humanly possible. She reached the kitchen without incident and opened the door. To her dismay there were a lot of ingredients but very few items that could be eaten without preparation. And even fewer ingredients she would have eaten even if they were prepared. She looked through the cupboards and finally found some ingredients to make a decent sandwich. Suddenly she heard the maid approaching. She must have stayed late! Rory grabbed her stash and made a quick but quiet dash for the stairs. She made it up halfway before the mustard betrayed her. The errant condiment slipped out of her hands and went tumbling down the stairs.

Rory had one moment to close her eyes and brace herself before all hell broke lose. The maid came running into the room and her grandparents burst through their door as well. Richard had a lamp in hand, holding it high in a threatening manner.

"Rory what are you doing?" Emily asked.

Rory stood there feeling foolish, her arms piled high with pilfered goods.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to wake you up. I just didn't have a really big dinner and I got hungry." Rory tried to explain.

"You're not pregnant, are you?" Emily asked suspiciously as the maid confiscated her dinner.

"No I'm not." Rory insisted.

"I am not going to let you get pregnant while you are staying here!" Richard said.

"I'm not pregnant!" Rory exclaimed, exasperated.

"Elaine, go get a pregnancy test!" Emily ordered as the maid scurried away.

"I'm just hungry!" Rory said, feeling ashamed and humiliated. And also angry. How dare her grandparents accuse her of that!

"We'll see." Her grandfather said.

The maid came running back holding a pregnancy test.

"Thank you Elaine, you may go." Emily said. "Rory, you take this test right now. I can not tell your mother that you got pregnant."

Rory debated telling her grandparents off but it wasn't worth the effort. No matter how mad she was at them she was stuck with them for the next few months and she had to put up with their insanity. But boy was her mother going to hear about this one when she got home!

In a huff Rory grabbed the test and hurried up to the bathroom.

"And come back with a better attitude!" Emily called after her.

Rory took the test and then waited with her grandparents on the stairs, them being completely tense and Rory being bored and irritated.

When the test came out negative Rory wasn't the least bit surprised but her grandparents were thrilled.

"That's wonderful Rory. Congratulations you passed." Said Richard.

Jeez thought Rory. They are making a bigger deal out of this than if I get an A on a test.

"It's not 100 though." Emily reminded them. "Take another one in the morning just to be sure."

Rory sighed and nodded, heading back to her room. She was still starving but she didn't want to deal with her grandparents anymore and she certainly didn't want to go back downstairs to get more supplies.

Dejected, she walked back into the room and saw something on her bed. It was a paper bag with her name on it.

Rory went over and took off the note. It read: Rory, you said you were hungry. Enjoy, your study-buddy.

Rory opened the bag and saw a few tacos sitting in there. She grabbed them greedily and stuffed them into her mouth. For once in her life she was grateful to Tristan which surprised her. It almost irritated her because she hated being under obligation to someone so... so arrogant! But how had he gotten in? Rory wondered that and also wondered how she was going to thank him.

Once she had eaten she hid the taco bag and napkins and then crawled into bed, knowing she would have to dispose of them before the maid came to clean in the morning.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Sorry for the very long delay. I've been busy with the new boy, but hopefully I'll start writing more again.**

* * *

The next morning Rory awoke and had a few wonderful minutes of relaxation before her life came crashing down on her. She realized that she for once had nothing going on today which was a blessing because since this whole mess had started she hadn't had much time to herself. She stretched and was about to read a little in bed when she heard a knock on the door.

"Breakfast is ready." The timid voice of the maid interrupted her peace.

"I'll be right there." Rory called, then rolled out of bed. She pushed her hair out of her face and stared at her pissy expression in the mirror. Then she hopped into the shower and into her clothes in a rush, knowing her grandparents they were probably thinking she was throwing up from morning sickness or something. She decided to 'forget' about the second pregnancy test she was supposed to take.

"Must be the only virgin given this much shit." she muttered as she brushed her teeth.

She went downstairs to find her grandparents waiting for her. Emily gave her a significant look.

"Did you take the second test?" She asked.

"Yes." Rory lied. "It's negative."

"Oh I'm so relieved. Really Rory, you shouldn't scare us that way." Emily said.

Rory stopped herself from glaring at her grandmother. Scaring her? It was their neurotic nature that made them assume she was pregnant. After breakfast she went back up to her room and looked around, wondering what to do. She wasn't about to call Jess after he had been such a jerk. Had he really broken up with Shane? She was never in Stars Hollow so how would she know?

She was going to see Tristan on Wednesday after school and Dean probably on Tuesday and Thursday and definitely on Friday at the stupid Fall Festival.

That left plenty of time for Jess to stop being a jerk and spend time with her! Or go back to Shane, but either way he should make up his mind!

These thoughts stayed with Rory for the rest of the day until she looked forward to school the next day and the busy week that would take her mind of any other problems, she was sure.

Rory's week did speed by as she expected. Surprisingly Dean didn't show up at Lane's house on Tuesday because he had to work, but Jess didn't show up either. Still mad at him, Rory didn't stop by the diner as she normally would have but went straight to work and straight home. On Wednesday she had thanked Tristan for the food and then steadily insisted that they focus on nothing but homework for the rest of the time he was there. Thursday was basically the same story, she went to work, saw Dean briefly to pay him what she owed him, then went home. She checked her phone frequently but there were no messages, Jess wasn't about to be the first to call, apparently. But neither was Rory! He was the one that was taking someone else to the Fall Festival. Well she was too, but he knew about it. And knew why.

Friday morning Rory got up reluctantly. With any luck Jess wouldn't show up at all and the only thing she would have to go through was pretending that she was still dating Dean all day. She drove out to Stars Hollow, calling Dean's cell phone as she neared the town.

"Hey Rory!" he said brightly.

"Hey, where do you want to meet?" she asked.

"How soon will you be in town?" he queried.

"Maybe another 5 minutes. I'm on my way right now."

"Oh good. Taylor would have an aneurysm if you were late."

"You don't have to tell me." Rory said with a smile.

"Just come by my house. You can park in the driveway and we can walk there." Dean suggested.

"That sounds fine." Rory said. "I'll see you a in a few minutes."

Rory shut the phone and kept driving, trying not to look in the diner window as she passed. The last thing she wanted to do was see Jess sucking face again. Especially after everything that had happened between them. Or was she being crazy? All this time was she just jumping to conclusions about what he had said?

Rory pulled into Dean's driveway still mulling over the possible implications of Jess's noncommittal "Fine. I'll see you there." What did that mean?

Rory stepped out of the car and smiled at Dean. He might have created this w hole inconvenient situation in the first place, but he hadn't done it intentionally. At least she didn't think so. And he was living up to his side of the bargain by pretending to be her boyfriend.

"Hey Dean!"

"Hey Rory. Ready to go?" he asked.

"Sure. Is Clara going too?" she responded.

"No, she's going with my parents a little later."

Rory nodded. They walked towards the town square next to each other, not far enough away to look like they were in love, but not far enough away to look like they weren't dating.

Rory had remembered to put his bracelet back on her wrist so that was a conspicuous symbol of her relationship.

As they approached the town square she saw Jess standing by a tree, obviously waiting for them. Her breath caught in her throat. He wasn't alone! He had Shane with him! Rory's eyes narrowed but she gave no other outward sign of her annoyance, just slipped her arm into Dean's. If that's the way he wanted to play it!

Jess put his arm around Shane's waist.

"Hey." said Rory as they got closer. She watched Jess closely to see his every expression.

He nodded at them. "Let's go get this insanity over with." he said.

"Where are we going?" Shane asked. "You never told me where we were going."

Jess looked annoyed as he pointed to the huge obvious banner near their heads. "The Fall Festival." he told her.

Rory was tempted to laugh, despite her jealousy. At least Jess was mocking his vapid date, which at least partly made up for him bringing a date in the first place.

"The Fall Festival?" Shane asked sceptically. "This is our big 'back together' date?"

Rory felt indignant. "What's wrong with the Fall Festival?" she asked.

"I guess it'll be fine." Shane said, putting her arm around Jess, whose own arm was still resting across her shoulders. Rory saw her lean in to whisper to Jess. "When are we going to ditch those two?" Rory heard in a hushed but audible voice. She and Dean actually shared a smile over how obvious Shane was, although she had no idea.

"Later." Jess whispered back. Rory missed the follow up because Jess actually could control the volume of his voice.

Rory tried the rest of the night to get Jess alone and talk to him, try to figure out what was going on, but between Dean and Shane they were never alone. Although Jess and Shane never did go off by themselves the entire date was very uncomfortable and awkward. Even Dean seemed to regret asking Jess along. Much as he had wanted to rub his face in it, the tension was so palpable that none of them had a good time, with the exception of Shane who was oblivious of everything that was going on between Jess and Rory.

The festival wound down and Dean walked Rory back to her car. Jess didn't even look her way as he parted with Shane.

Rory said a quick goodbye to Dean and then got into her car, wanting scream and cry and fall asleep all at the same time. Instead she turned on the car and pulled out of the driveway, making her way slowly back to Hartford.

Not paying enough attention she almost hit Jess with the car as he crossed the road to Luke's Diner. Fortunately, he was alone. He jumped out of the way and then banged on her window.

"What the hell is your problem!" he yelled. Rory stopped the car.

"My problem?" she asked. "What about you? Getting back together with Shane when you didn't even break up with me."

"So you felt the need to run me over?" he asked.

"That was an accident. I'm sorry I almost hit you but I just wasn't looking. And I wouldn't have hit you, I could have swerved." she answered indignantly. "That's not the point anyway. Are you dating Shane?"

"I don't know. Are you dating me or Dean?" he shot back. "How do I know what's going on when you keep running off to be with someone else. We could have gone to the Festival as 'friends' or we could have just hung out together if you didn't want to be seen with me. Instead you decided to go with Dean. What was I supposed to think?"

"We've barely started dating and we keep running into the same problem, miscommunication! You have to trust that I want to be with you and that anything I do is to ensure that we can stay together." Rory shouted at him in frustration.

"Well it's kinda hard to tell what you want when you are dating three people." he yelled back. "I don't know if I can deal with this anymore. There is too much going on. I can't stand seeing you with Dean and yet he shows up again and again, acting like you two never broke up. Half the time I think it's all in my head. Rory I like you but this is just too much work and I can't do it."

"So you'd rather date Shane?" she asked incredulously.

"At least she's easy. You say you want to be with me but I see no evidence of it."

"Oh yeah like you act like you want to be with me either. I mean Dean really wants to be with me and still likes me. And Tristan goes out of his way for me.." Rory stopped, knowing instantly that she had gone too far.

"What?" Jess asked quietly.

"Nothing," she responded. "I just think that you don't even care that we were dating. It seemed like it meant nothing to you."

"You said he was just some, what did you call him? Oh yeah, a patsy like Dean who you were helping with his homework. Does he like you?" Jess asked. Rory could tell he was furious.

"Well... sorta. I think. It's hard to tell with him." She admitted. She didn't tell him about the tacos and the date.

"And you didn't think I had a right to know about it? Or that I would have suggested something else? Why do you have to pretend to do all this anyway Rory? I don't get it."

Rory clenched her teeth. "You know how my mom is. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for her and I'm not going to be the one to mess it up. And my grandparents are off my back if I pretend to be dating Tristan."

"Does he even know about us?" Jess asked.

Rory nodded. "He knew before we started pretending that I had a boyfriend."

"Look I don't really want to be with Shane, but I also don't want to sit around and wait for you forever if you aren't really into this. I don't know if you are being honest or if you like all the attention, and I'm not going to be that idiot who sits here and waits for you to show me some scrap of attention." Jess told her.

"Jess it's not like that. I just... the whole situation is so complicated and things are so messed up while I have to live with my grandparents. I can't complain about them to mom or she will come home. I have to do what they say or they will tell mom I'm rebellious or something and she will come home. And she can't know that I'm not with Dean or she will come home. She doesn't know that I don't love him anymore, she will just think that no matter what I say I'll have broken up with my first boyfriend and I'll be hurting. I can't let my personal life ruin my mom's. And the only way I can get anything past my grandparents is to pretend to date Tristan. But believe me, I don't even like him, not a little bit."

Jess was just about to respond when Rory's cell phone rang. She glanced at the number and groaned a little. "It's my grandparents, I have to answer it."

Jess just nodded sullenly and kept quiet.

Rory flipped on the phone. "Hello?" she said cautiously.

"Rory where are you?" Emily asked on the other end of the line.

"I'm at the Fall Festival Grandma, like I said I would be." Rory answered.

"But Tristan called and said you had a date." Rory could see that Jess had been listening and that he looked up at her distrustfully at that. "Did you forget? You don't want to be late."

Rory gritted her teeth. Just like Tristan to pull something like that. Now she would either have to deny it and expose her plan or she would have to run home and go on a date with him without a word. Bastard...

"Oh Grandma I did forget. I was having so much fun with Lane I completely lost track of time. What time is it?" she asked trying to sound innocent. She didn't even look over at Jess who she knew would be hurt by this.

"It's almost 7. And Tristan will be by at 8:30, so you get home right now. It's not appropriate to make your date wait. Really Rory I don't know where your head is. It seems like you don't want to get married at all sometimes." Emily scolded her.

Rory nearly choked at the mention of marriage. Instead, with a resigned sigh, she said "I'll head back right away. Bye Grandma."

"Bye Rory." and her grandmother hung up.

Rory looked at Jess. "I'm sorry. I guess I have to go."

"To have a date with _him_?" Jess asked.

"He's a jerk. He did that on purpose. I'm going to 'break up' with him tonight somehow. I'll just find another way to deal with my grandparents. I didn't know it would go this way." Rory tried to explain.

"No it seems like you still have to see him. Otherwise I'll never get to see you if your grandparents won't let you come out to Stars Hollow." Jess said sadly. "I don't like this, but I'll have to trust you. Just promise that you won't let anything happen with him."

"I promise." Rory vowed. "But what about Shane?"

"Don't worry about that, I'll take care of it." Jess assured her. "Now you'd better go, we aren't going to solve all this tonight."

He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and Rory got back into her car and waved at him as she drove home to have a date with Tristan.

Rory drove home irritated with Tristan and in no mood to do him any favors. At this point, if he wanted to call off the arrangement that would have been fine with her! Although Jess did have a point that this was keeping her grandparents happy and that was making it easier to see Jess. Although Tristan pulling stupid stunts like this didn't help.

By the time Rory got back to Hartford she was so irritated that she was in a hurry to get this "date" over with. She rushed upstairs with no more than a perfunctory hello to her grandparents, jumped in the shower and emerged dressed for a casual date and with a slightly better attitude. She would just have to let Tristan know that he couldn't pull shit like this!


End file.
